Answer:

Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) intoxication can be devastating, especially in infants. The 1995 paper “Baking Soda: A Potentially Fatal Home Remedy” in Pediatric Emergency Care led Arm & Hammer to start placing warning labels against use in children under 5 on all their cartons.Too much bicarbonate can overwhelm our kidneys’ ability to excrete it, leading to a metabolic alkalosis, which can lead to seizures or even death.

To answer your question, as little as a few pinches can sicken an infant, but based on the series of case reports in adults it appears to take tablespoons for folks with normal kidney function to get into trouble. This is why I encourage anyone trying the three-quarters-of-a-teaspoon-per-quart of water regimen suggested in Alkaline water: a scam? to do it under the supervision of a physician to make sure you don’t have a condition that would preclude such a trial. And there are other ways to lower blood pressure without fear of toxicity: see, for example, my video Fill in the Blank.

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Michael Greger, M.D., is a physician, author, and internationally recognized professional speaker on a number of important public health issues. Dr. Greger has lectured at the Conference on World Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, and the International Bird Flu Summit, testified before Congress, appeared on The Dr. Oz Show and The Colbert Report, and was invited as an expert witness in defense of Oprah Winfrey at the infamous "meat defamation" trial. Currently Dr. Greger proudly serves as the Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States.

I just confronted a topic about Alkaline Diet.Is there any science on that?

Toxins

Almost all plant foods will produce a potential renal acid load (PRAL) that is negative (alkaline) because of the amino acid makeup. Grains are very slightly acidic but most animal products are several times times more acidic. The PRAL can be calculated with this formula PRAL = 0.49(Protein) + 0.037(Phosphorus) – 0.021(Potassium) – 0.026(Magnesium) – 0.013(Calcium).http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7797810

You can go to the USDA nutrition database and calculate the alkalinity or acidity of certain foods this way using a 100 gram serving sample.http://nutritiondata.self.com/

Here are a list of common plant foods. A negative number indicates alkalinity whereas positive means acidity.

As you can see, all animal foods are acidic. This acidity is bad for our bones as explained by this study. “In response to chronic acid stress such as is imposed by an acid-ash diet, cellular responses mobilize bone and calcium as a buffer.”http://jn.nutrition.org/content/128/6/1051.full

This chronic acid load people put on their body causes bone loss leading to osteoporosis later on in life.

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(amino acids can be acid or basic — I used to be able to tell you by looking at them, but — been a few years. Hell, I used to be able to draw them all. it’s not rocket science. Just the most basic chemistry of functional groups.) Seems to me the important thing is to simply eat a wide variety of whole foods. In truth, we don’t know what we’ll be learning about food, our present misconceptions. Dr. Gregor is always showing us that. But it seems common sense that meat is so calorie dense it’s hard to fit it in without packing on pounds. It’s also so dosed, so processed, so cruel. Why not take all that land we grow feed-corn on (or rather pay farmers not to grow — go figure) and plant beans and veggies on it. Organic, local. It makes more jobs, better food, we’re winners all round. Also builds community.

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Thank you so much for this information, i had no idea i was SO ignorant of nutrition. Great job!